eBayReviews 3,492

This is a buyers market. If you are a seller ebay takes 12% of your sales and they charge you to list all your items. Also after they take all that money when a buyer pays via paypal (which ebay owns) they take another 3% of the total. (not the amount minus what they deducted, the full total). Only buyers can leave negative feedback. So if a buyer never pays etc you can't even leave neg or neutral feedback. So very unfair that they can leave neg for you and you can't even leave neutral for them. How can you warn others about them?

I would give this a five except for Paypal (which always gives me trouble for some reason) - Such a good idea and so well executed. If they could fix Paypal, this would be just about perfect. They do everything possible to make sure the people selling and buying are on the up and up. On the very few occasions I have needed to deal with a problem, they were courteous, professional and willing to do what was needed to keep the customer happy.

It is what it is.
Joined in... 1999? 2000?
Darkone67.
Have seen many changes, and not all for the better. The latest insult (that I am aware of) was sellers not being able to leave anything but positive feedback for buyers, or anyone (not) being able to view someone's buying history to check for shill bidding - that's a sham. Sham, not shame, though THAT, too.
I am, or was, a major buyer with over 1000 positive feedback (no negs), and a seller with something over 50 (no negs)... but selling has become expensive, overfee'd and not worth the time. I still peruse the site for off-season and EUC to purchase, but as for selling what I could offer as a great deal... costs me more than I make when considering time put in to put up quality images, list in detail and ship.
Forget it.

As a buyer I love eBay and can get great deals - although not as easily as in years past. As a seller I am constantly aware of the high cost of doing business on eBay, so it stands to reason that, as eBay continues to increase my cost of selling, my prices must go up and buyers, like me, can't get as good of a deal as in years past. One simply leads to the other. EBay does a good job of providing a safe buying environment, and their site continually improves with regard to features and ease of use.

On the selling side, eBay has some major issues. EBay now makes profit on the amount charged for shipping – even though sellers like me charge actual shipping COST. Unbelievable! I've read many stories of good sellers being suddenly shut down without any explanation from eBay. Many times these sellers made their entire income from eBay sales. Ebay has been, and is currently being, sued for callous acts of this sort. EBay makes it literally impossible for a seller to give anything but positive feedback to a buyer - even if the buyer is a liar, cheat and overall a--hole. EBay cares 97% for customers and about 3% for sellers. It's virtually impossible to get unfair negative feedback removed from a seller's record because of eBay's gigantic "customer is always right" bias. It's just a sad fact! Problem is, unhappy sellers can make for more unhappy customers.

I urge eBay to consider the once all-powerful Howard Johnson restaurant chain. The owner(s) sat back and counted their money - resting on their sizable laurels. Meanwhile, a guy named Ray Kroc took a small hamburger stand and worked his butt off to build it into a behemoth restaurant chain - never resting and always re-investing his profits into more and more locations. The chain is called McDonald's! By the way, the Howard Johnson restaurant chain, once the country's largest, no longer exists. Not even one location survives! EBay should keep an eye out for all the other web sites vying for the top auction site spot. EBay better not ignore and mistreat their sellers much longer. There WILL be another Ray Kroc out there who'd love to welcome those sellers to his site!

There simply isn't enough room on this page to explain ALL the bad things about selling on eBay. But, their huge size still enables me to make money, so I will keep looking for the right alternative selling site while I swallow my pride as an eBay seller. C'mon Ray Kroc, Jr. Where are you?!?!

I have thought long and hard on a review for ebay. I don't use them very often, neither ever did. Infrequently, I will purchase an unusual tchotchke; book or excuse me, fetish-sorta implement. I had one odd experience with them, several years back. The seller and then ebay became demanding on my slow response to rating the sale. I had not used the item - so I was rushed into a review. I refused to order through them for over 2 years, till I saw a book, that I could not easily acquire anywhere else. This sale was fine. Still, I don't use this site often.